


Unplanned, but not Unwanted

by NeverHadThePlot



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Episode: Revolution of the Daleks, Pre-Episode: Revolution of the Daleks, Unplanned Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-07
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-13 14:41:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29902638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NeverHadThePlot/pseuds/NeverHadThePlot
Summary: The Doctor and Jack break out of prison and the Doctor has a meltdown. Jack comforts her through the night.A few months later the Doctor is happily travelling the universe with Yaz when she starts to get mysteriously sick. Unsure what to do, the Doctor visits her old friend Martha to see if she can figure out what is wrong with her. What will she do when she finds out that her life is about to change forever?
Relationships: Thirteenth Doctor/Jack Harkness
Comments: 1
Kudos: 11





	1. Comfort in Freedom

The Doctor and the Captain landed in the Tardis and immediately set about taking off. If the Jadoon had noticed their escape, and any of them had any ounce of smarts, they would know that the Tardis was the first place they would go. They danced about each other, flipping switches and turning dials until the ship made that wheezing growl the Doctor was so fond of and sped off into the time vortex. They both collapsed against the console and breathed a sigh of relief.

The Doctor looked up at Jack and finally started to process what had happened. Decades of solitary confinement, of talking to herself and drawing lines on the walls with her fingernails, and she was out. She was free. Back home in the Tardis.

Her lip started to wobble and her eyes started to water. She clapped a hand to her mouth as she let out an involuntary sob.

“Woah, hey,” Jack said, rushing forwards and pulling the doctor into his arms. She clung to his shirt, collapsing against him.

“I’m sorry,” She gasped into his chest.

“Shh, you’re okay. You’re free, I’ve got you,” Jack murmured to her, pulling her closer and rocking them gently. The nineteen years he had spent trying to get to her had been no picnic, and he had been in general populace for a long while. He couldn’t imagine what decades of solitary confinement could do to someone like the doctor. She needed people.   
She had always needed people. Being alone never led to anything good for anyone where the doctor was concerned.

Her knees went wobbly and Jack caught her, lowering them to the floor of the Tardis and pulling her into his lap. “I’ve got you,” he whispered into her hair as she wept into his chest, soaking his prison jump suit.

Eventually, her sobbing subsided, and she lay still with her ear turned to his beating heart. He held her, stroking her hair and murmuring reassurances quietly into the top of her head, reassuring himself that he had her, that the nightmare was over. At least for now.

She pulled back and looked up at him, her face red and splotchy, tears still silently running down her cheeks. Jack smiled at her sadly and gently ran his thumbs under her eyes to dry the tears. 

“Thank you,” she said, sniffling slightly.

“Always happy to hug you Doc,” Jack said, smirking at her half-heartedly. The Doctor scrunched up her nose and Jack let the smirk drop from his face. “I’ll always be there when you need me Doctor. Just as you are always there for me,” he said more seriously.

“I wasn’t always,” she said, looking away shamefacedly.

Jack sighed and placed a finger beneath her chin, lifting her face up to look at him. “I forgave you a long time ago for leaving me Doctor. When will you forgive yourself?”

She opened her mouth to reply, but found no words. “I don’t think I know how. I don’t know if I deserve to be. I don’t even know who I am.”

“What do you mean?” Jack asked, frowning.

“I,” the Doctor began to say, then stopped and her eyes searching his face. Jack didn’t know what she was looking for, but he tried to keep his expression open and honest, tried to convey to her without words that she could talk to him, that she could trust him. He had just spent nineteen years in prison trying to find her after all. Whatever she saw seemed to convince her, he noticed, as a determined look entered her eyes and she nodded her head.

“I went back to Galiffrey. I found a way to save it, so that I never killed them. It was fine, they were safe, living in a bubble universe. No one could hurt them, and they could hurt no one. But I went home and it had been… destroyed. Raised to the ground,” she said. She trailed off, her eyes staring at something that only she could see.

“What happened?” Jack asked.

Her eyes jumped back to focus on his face. “The Master. He did it. He went into the Matrix and discovered something buried in our past. It made him so mad, worse than I’ve ever seen him. I never would have imagined he could do that – not to Galiffrey.”

“What did he discover Doctor?” Jack asked, sensing that she hadn’t reached the end of her story. The Doctor flinched and looked away. Jack ran his hands soothingly along her arms, hoping to relax her.

“The Timeless Child,” she said. “Galiffrey’s creation myth. It turns out that regeneration didn’t develop naturally in the timelords. They got it through experimentation. They found a child, alone and out in the stars, who had the gift. They experimented on them. Tortured them for years, several regenerations, until they could replicate it and transfuse the gene into themselves. They restricted regenerations to twelve, but the child seemed to have an unlimited supply. Imagine that. Years upon years of torture on an orphaned child.”

Jack was starting to feel a sense of dread as the Doctors story progressed. She said she didn’t know who she was, and he had a feeling he knew where this was going, but he had to ask. “What happened to the child, Doctor?”

“They grew up, and lived several lives. I don’t know how many. But their memories were taken, and somehow, they became a child again. An orphan on Galiffrey, known as Theta Sigma,” She said. 

Jack closed his eyes briefly, who else was it going to be, really? “Doctor-” he began to say, only to be interrupted.

“I owe you an apology Jack,” She said. He shut his mouth and looked at her questioningly. “All those years ago, I abandoned you for being unable to die, for being unnatural. And here I am in the same position. I’m such a hypocrite.”

“It’s okay Doctor,” Jack said. “It really is. You and I have been friends for centuries and I let that pain go a very long time ago.”

“I don’t deserve you,” the Doctor said sadly.

“We’ve both done things we regret in the past Doctor, and I know you never really meant to hurt me,” Jack said.

“I don’t. I can’t remember all of my lives Jack. I don’t know who I was in the past. What if the Jadoon had me locked away for a good reason? What if I did something truly terrible?” she asked.

“Never cruel or cowardly,” Jack said, reaching out to stroke her cheek. “That is what you chose your name to mean. You told me so once. In all your lives that you remember, you have tried to live up to that name. I know you Doctor, you are the man – woman who always helps. Whatever you did in the past, I am sure that you had good reasons and the best intentions.”

“I’m the Doctor,” she said. 

“You are the Doctor,” he agreed with a smile. 

She smiled at him a little wetly and leaned forwards, Jack met her in the middle and they shared a soft kiss. When they pulled apart, they rested their foreheads together. 

“Thank you,” The Doctor said.

“For what?” Jack asked.

“Being you,” the Doctor replied, and she leaned forwards to kiss him again. Jack melted into it, his hand coming up to cradle her face. The Doctor shifted so that she was straddling his lap and deepened the kiss. 

“Jack,” She said, almost a whisper as they pulled apart for breath. “You know I wouldn’t normally ask, but it has been decades since I felt a friendly touch.”

“Hmm,” Jack agreed, scared that if he talked, she would change her mind from where he hoped this was going.

“Do you think we could take this to a room… you know, one with a bed?” She asked awkwardly, shifting in his lap and not quite able to look at him. Jack felt himself grinning, she was adorable.

He pressed forward to kiss her hotly, before pulling away and standing with her in his arms. 

“Jack!” She cried, screeching in shock and clinging to his shoulders.

“Doctor, it would be my pleasure,” Jack said, grinning at her as he carried her deeper into the Tardis, in search of a bedroom.


	2. Do you have a Doctor, Doctor?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the Doctor is sick and the Tardis takes her to someone who can help.

It was a few months after Jack had rescued her from prison that the Doctor started to notice something was wrong. She and Yaz had been travelling alone after the boy’s departure at New Year. They had met Al Capone – not a nice fellow. Visited the real Jurassic Park, the Doctor hadn’t liked the way the dinosaurs were being treated, after several arguments and a loose raptor, the theme park was now a nature reserve, no one but preservationists were allowed to enter the lower atmosphere. And they had been to see Hamilton with the original cast because Yaz had never been and the Doctor was more than happy to go again.

In all those adventures the Doctor had noticed that she felt more tired than usual, and she was starting to eat more. She put it down to the terrible prison food making her want to savour the good things while she could, and the lack of movement in her small solitary cell meant that she wasn’t as used to running as she used to be.  
But the first big indicator that something was wrong came when they visited the planet Portsmouth, a planet mostly made of water but for the small port towns that were dotted about. The best planet in the universe to go for fresh sea food. They had shared a sea-food medley to die for, only the Doctor found herself throwing it back up not twenty minutes later.

“Are you okay Doctor?” Yaz asked, concerned as she rubbed the aliens back.

“I’m fine. Sure it’s nothing. Maybe it’s an allergy. That’s new, never had an allergy before,” She said, trying to sound upbeat despite her head being halfway down a toilet.

“I don’t think that’s how allergies work Doctor,” Yaz said sceptically.

“Well not for you maybe, but I’ve had a few different faces. Maybe this one just doesn’t like shellfish,” the Doctor said, ignoring the fact that they had had prawn cocktails when they visited Space Vegas a few months ago and she had been absolutely fine.

Yaz just sighed, and continued to rub her back. “Maybe we should get you back to the Tardis?” she suggested.

“I’m sorry,” the Doctor apologized, sitting up and wiping her mouth on a napkin her companion offered to her. “I wanted to take you on a boat ride to watch the sunset. It’s supposed to be beautiful.”

Yaz smiled at her. “We can come back another time, when you’re feeling better. And we’ll eat before we come so you don’t get sick again.”

“Okay,” the doctor said. “That sounds nice.”

“C’mon,” Yaz said, she hooked an arm around the Doctor and helped her to stand. They walked back through the town built on wooden stilts as they headed back to the Tardis. The Doctor was frowning at her feet, allowing Yaz to navigate them as she thought. She didn’t understand where the sickness had come from. She wasn’t allergic to fish, that was a ridiculous notion she thought up to appease her friend. But she felt fine now. No nausea what so ever. What sort of illness passed that quickly? Added to the fact that she rarely got sick in the first place, the whole thing was bizarre.

“C’mon Doctor, let’s make some tea, help soothe your stomach,” Yaz suggested as they entered the Tardis.

The Doctor perked up at that. “Ooh, can we have biscuits?”

“You’ve just thrown up everything you’ve eaten today, and you want biscuits?” Yaz asked, looking at her like she’d grown another head.

The Doctor shrugged. “I’m hungry.”

Yaz just sighed and shook her head, walking off in the direction of the kitchen. 

…

The sickness didn’t go away. There didn’t seem to be a rhyme or reason to it. Sometimes she’d wake in the morning and be taken over by nausea so bad that she barely made it to the bathroom. Other mornings she’d be absolutely fine. Some days she could make it to three in the afternoon before she lost her lunch.

She was growing concerned. Her condition didn’t seem to be improving at all, and added to the nausea she seemed to be sleeping more and more. Despite her best efforts, she knew that Yaz was starting to worry too.

“Doctor, don’t you think we should take you to… well, a doctor?” Yaz asked her one day, having caught her throwing up again.

“No time for doctor’s Yaz, we’re going to Paris,” The Doctor said, trying to put her usual bounce in her step.

“Yeah, but Doctor,” Yaz said, reaching out to grab her wrist, mirroring the position they had stood in before the Doctor had left to sacrifice herself. Yaz counted her blessings that the Doctor didn’t snatch her arm away and yell at her again. “I’m worried about you. Please, you’ve been sick for almost a month now.”

The Doctor’s shoulders slumped.

“I’m sorry Yaz, I don’t want to worry you,” she said honestly.

“I know,” Yaz said. “Isn’t there somewhere we can go, just to get you checked out?”

“All the Time Lord physicians are dead,” the Doctor said sadly.

“Surely there must be somewhere?” Yaz asked. As she spoke the Tardis lights started to flash and she started to shake and the wheezing noise started up.

“What the-” the Doctor said rushing to the controls, she started pressing buttons. “We’re taking off.”

“How? You didn’t press anything?” Yaz asked, clinging to the console as the Tardis flung them about.

“I don’t know. She must be taking us somewhere,” The Doctor said, pressing a button and looked at the screen. “Oh.”

“Oh? What, where are we going?” Yaz asked, troubled by the way the doctor seemed to have just stopped, not even the rocking of the ship bothering her as she stared at the screen.

“Martha Jones,” the Doctor said in reply. The ship seemed to stabilize a little as she said the name, still spinning them through the time vortex, but less chaotically.

“Who is Martha Jones?” Yaz asked, cautiously letting go of the control panel.

“She’s… a friend. She used to travel with me, oh about a thousand years ago now,” The Doctor said. “She was – is brilliant. But the Master, well let’s say Galiffrey wasn’t the first planet he destroyed. He took the Earth, and Martha saved it. She’s a Doctor, a humany one.”

“She sounds wonderful,” Yaz said, despite knowing that she was missing more than half of the story.

“I don’t know if she will be pleased to see me,” The Doctor said, wringing her hands nervously.

“Don’t be stupid,” Yaz said, “Of course she will. She’s your friend.”

“But I haven’t seen her in a thousand years. And I was a man back then, she won’t recognize me.” The Doctor said.

“It didn’t seem to faze Jack,” Yaz said, “He’s seen your different faces and he still loves you.”

The Doctor met Yaz’s determined eyes and sighed. “You’re gonna go on about this until we go see her now, aren’t you?”

“Yep,” Yaz replied, grinning.

The Doctor sighed. “Oh, alright then.” She dashed about the control room, pressing the buttons that would allow them to land.

“Right then,” the Doctor said, staring at the door, unmoving.

Yaz came around the console and squeezer her had. “It’s going to be okay Doctor.”

“This is stupid. She’s not an alien doctor, she’s not going to know what’s wrong. We should go, I’ve ruined her life enough,” she said, still staring at the door.

The Tardis made a loud squealing noise and the lights went out. They blinked in the darkness until the emergency lights kicked in.

“I think the Tardis wants you to stay here,” Yaz said, laughter in her voice as the Doctor spun round and pressed a few buttons, trying to get her to turn back on.

“She’s turned herself off,” the Doctor said. 

“I can see that,” Yaz said, smiling. 

“Whose side are you on?” The Doctor asked, knocking against the console.

Yaz chuckled. “She’s just worried about you. C’mon, introduce me to Martha Jones.”

The Doctor sighed and hung her head for a moment, before spinning around and heading to the doors. “Right, let’s get a shift on,” She said, pushing her way out of the Tardis before she changed her mind and had strong words with her wilful ship.

Yaz jogged to keep up and stumbled into the Doctor’s back as she had frozen just outside the door. “Doctor, what?” Yaz asked, rubbing her nose and looking over the woman’s shoulder to see what the problem was.

Standing before them was a couple staring opened mouthed at the Doctor and Yaz. Looking behind them, Yaz noticed that they had landed in what appeared to be in someone’s living room. She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.

“Doctor, you’ve got to stop landing inside people’s houses. You have to give them a chance to tell you to bugger off if they don’t want to see you,” Yaz said, exasperated.

“What? It’s not my fault,” The doctor said, recovering from her staring match with the young couple. “I wasn’t driving, the Tardis brought us here.”

“Well maybe if you hadn’t been so stubborn, she wouldn’t have taken matters into her own hands,” Yaz said.

“Doctor?” A woman’s voice asked, drawing their attention from their argument. “You- You’re a woman now?”

“Hello Martha,” The Doctor said, shifting nervously. “It’s been a long time.”

Martha broke into a huge grin and crossed the small space to pull the Doctor into a hug. The Doctor huffed in relief and hugged her back.

When they broke away the Doctor turned to the man who was smiling indulgently. “Mickey the Idiot!” the Doctor said.

“Doctor!” Yaz exclaimed in shock at her rudeness. 

“I’ve not seen you for years and still you call me an idiot?” Mickey asked, crossing his arms over his chest and frowning.

“Old habits?” the Doctor said, shrugging sheepishly.

Mickey laughed and dragged her towards him. “C’mere Doc,” he said, pulling her into an enthusiastic hug. 

When they pulled away the Doctor introduced Yaz. “Mickey Smith, Martha Jones, I’d like you too meet Yasmin Khan. She’s been travelling with me for a while, since I got the new face.”

“Nice to meet you,” Mickey said, offering the girl a hand to shake.

“You too,” Yaz said, shaking his hand, and then Martha’s.

“What’s going on Doctor? What are you doing here?” Martha asked, happy as she was to see her friend, the Doctor just didn’t do social calls.

“I need your help,” the Doctor said, looking at Martha earnestly.

“What is it? Another alien trying to take over the planet?” Mickey asked.

“Oh erm… not exactly,” the Doctor said, shifting nervously. “Well… the thing is… it’s not aliens. The world isn’t ending or anything.”

“Just tell them Doctor,” Yaz said encouragingly.

“IthinkImightbesick,” the Doctor said in a rush of jumbled words that were impossible to follow.

“What?” Martha asked, staring at her perplexed.

“I’ve been sick,” The Doctor said, staring at her shoes. “For about a month. It’s not getting better and Yaz was trying to get me to see a doctor, but there are no Time Lord doctors anymore and, well, the Tardis took off on her own and brought us to you so, I guess she thinks you can help.”

“But you never get sick,” Mickey said. “Unless… is this another regeneration sickness thing?” he asked, remembering the first time the Doctor had regenerated around him.

“No, it can’t be. I’ve had this face for fifty – sixty years,” the Doctor said.

“What?” Yaz asked, turning to look at the Doctor. “No, you said you regenerated before you crashed into the train. That was only two years ago.”

The doctor looked at her like a deer in the headlights. “I- well… I told you I was in prison,” she said, scratching the back of her head.

“You were in prison for sixty years? Why didn’t you tell me?” Yaz asked, distraught. She had treated her so horribly when she first got back, pushing her and yelling at her. The Doctor been stuck in prison all alone only to get back to her friends and be pushed away. Hurt by Yaz, abandoned by Graham and Ryan. “Oh Doctor, I’m so sorry. I was so selfish.”

“No, it’s not your fault Yaz. It’s okay,” the Doctor reassured her.

Mickey cleared his throat and they turned to look at him. “Why don’t we leave Martha to check up on the Doctor, Yaz? We can go make a cuppa?”

“Okay, you’re okay?” Yaz asked the Doctor. The Doctor nodded, and Yaz allowed herself to be led from the room.

“C’mon Doctor, why don’t you tell me what’s wrong?” Martha asked, taking her arm gently and leading her to sit on the sofa.

The Doctor sat down, crossing her legs and resting her elbows on her knees. Martha sat beside her.

“It’s funny,” Martha said. “I always thought, if I saw you in another regeneration, I wouldn’t recognize you. That you’d feel different. But…”

“I’m still me?” the Doctor asked.

“Yes,” Martha said with a smile. “You’re definitely still you.”

The doctor smiled at that. It was nice to know that Martha still cared for her, even with a different face. Mickey had barely blinked either, but they had been through this song and dance before.

“So, tell me what’s wrong. Must be serious if you are actually searching for help,” Martha said.

“The Tardis brought us here and turned off the engines, wasn’t exactly me searching for help,” The Doctor grumbled. Martha chuckled.

“I’ve been sick. A lot of the time in the mornings, but not always. Not every day but most days. It’s weird though, because after throwing up I feel absolutely fine,” The Doctor said.

“Okay,” Martha said. “Have there been any other symptoms?”

“I’ve been sleeping a lot more,” the Doctor said, “And running is making me a lot more tired than usual.”

“How much more?” Martha asked.

“Well… normally I only need two or three hours in every forty-eight hours. But I have been sleeping more like a human, and I’m still getting tired,” the Doctor said. “And I’ve been eating a lot more. I thought it was just… the prison food wasn’t very appetizing, I thought I was just making up for lost time, but…” 

“Are there certain foods or smells that you normally eat, that you’ve found yourself avoiding?” Martha asked, a completive look on her face.

“Well… yes. I’ve suddenly found that banana’s smell terrible. You know how much I like banana’s Martha,” the Doctor said, pouting.

Martha chuckled at the expression. “Okay, Doctor, I’m going to ask you an uncomfortable question now okay?”

The Doctor nodded nervously, pushing the sleeves of her shirt up to her elbows, then pulling them down again nervously. Martha waited until she fixed her eyes on her face again.

“Have you had sex, with a man, since you regenerated into this body?” Martha asked.

The Doctor’s face flushed tomato red. “Martha! Why would you ask that, that’s not, why?” she spluttered in embarrassment.

“I’m asking for a reason Doctor, I’m not trying to pry into your private life. Please answer me, I think it might help me work out what’s going on,” Martha said, trying to reassure her.

The Doctor thought back to the night she and Jack had escaped prison. He had been so gentle with her, more so than she thought he would be capable of. He had been so kind and patient, waiting for her cues before moving forward.

“Once,” she murmured, looking up at Martha through her eyelashes.

Martha nodded, as if she had expected the answer.

“How long ago? In your timeline, not the universes?”

“Oh, um… about two, three months ago? Do you know what’s wrong with me?” the Doctor asked.

“Doctor, I don’t know how Time Lord biology works specifically. But if you were human, I would say that you were pregnant,” Martha said, unsure how to break the news to her flighty friend.

“What?” The Doctor said, eyes wide and jumping to her feet. “No, nonononono, I can’t be pregnant. That’s not possible. The Time Lords were all barren, that’s why they invented the looms. I can’t be –,” The doctor said, pacing the small living room and waving her arms about. Before she suddenly froze, and rested her hand on her stomach. “But I’m not a Time Lord, am I?”

“Doctor?” Martha asked.

She looked up at Martha with wide eyes. “What am I going to do?” she asked.

“Well first,” Martha said, approaching her slowly so as not to startle her. “We’re going to go into the Tardis and get her to scan you to confirm my thinking.”

The Doctor nodded and allowed herself to be pulled towards her ship. “And then, we are going to talk to Mickey and Yaz about where to go from there.”

“Okay,” the Doctor whispered, mind reeling. Now the thought was there she was certain that she was pregnant. It made sense. She hadn’t thought to use contraception, she’d been a man for two thousand years, she’d never had to use it before. And she couldn’t blame Jack, neither of them had been thinking straight that night, and he had always seen her as the Doctor. He’d have thought about her gender about as much as she had.

“Hello old friend,” Martha greeted the Tardis, running her hand along the desktop. “I love the redecoration.”

The Tardis bleeped happily and Martha smiled.

“Can you do us a favour old girl, and scan the doctor? We think she might be pregnant,” Martha asked.

As she spoke, the lights in the engine room came back on and the Tardis beeped a few times. The Doctor felt the familiar scanning technology brush over her and turned to face the screens in anticipation. 

Galiffreyan symbols appeared on the screen and the Doctor let out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding.

“Doctor?” Martha asked gently, unable to read the signs.

“I’m pregnant,” she said a little breathlessly.

Martha smiled, happy for her friend who would never have to be alone again with the little time lord she now carried. But the Doctor’s face was losing colour.

“Doctor, are you okay?” Martha asked, rushing to her side, ready to catch her should she collapse.

“I’m pregnant. I’m going to have a baby. What if they take them from me? I can’t let my child go through that,” the Doctor said in a panic.

“Who is they, Doctor?” Martha asked, “Who would want to take your child?”

“I have so many enemies Martha,” the Doctor said with tears in her eyes. “They did it before. They kidnapped the child of two of my friends, they raised her to kill me. They hurt her so much.”

“Shh,” Martha said, pulling the Doctor into her arms. “We will protect your child doctor. She will be safe. You are growing a little miracle in there, aren’t you at all happy?” 

“Yes,” the Doctor said with a wet laugh, reaching down to caress her stomach. “I never imagined… River and I talked about it. Having a child. But our lives were so dangerous and backwards… we didn’t want to risk it.”

“River?” Martha asked, curiously. 

The Doctor smiled sadly. “She was my wife. She was part Time Lord.”

“She died?” Martha asked. The Doctor nodded. “I’m sorry,” Martha said. Her poor friend was forever losing people, even the ones who had the biology to stick around seemed to pass on too early.

“C’mon, let’s go get that tea that Mickey promised,” The Doctor said, brushing off her grief and striding out of the Tardis.

…

“So, what’s the verdict?” Mickey asked cheerfully as the Doctor and Martha entered the kitchen. He and Yaz were sat at the table, nursing tea of their own. Yaz sat forward eagerly, hoping to hear good news.

“Oh… well, this is quite awkward isn’t it?” the Doctor asked Martha, unsure how to say it.

Martha chuckled at her. “The Doctor is pregnant,” Martha said, saving the socially awkward woman the trouble.

“What? How? When?” Yaz asked, flabbergasted. The Doctor didn’t have time for that kind of thing. They were always together. Unless… someone at the prison…

“Oh, well I thought you’d have known how babies were made by now Yaz,” the Doctor said, shifting uncomfortably. 

Martha cuffed her gently round the back of the head. Pregnant or not, that was no way to treat her friend. The Doctor pouted at Martha, but turned to her current companion. 

“Sorry Yaz, that was rude. It was the night I got out of prison, just before we came to find you.”

“Jack?” Yaz asked in surprise. After the conversation she’d had with him, Yaz had assumed that he and the Doctor had never slept together.

“Jack?” Mickey and Martha asked at the same time.

“Captain Cheesecake knocked you up?” Mickey asked the Doctor.

“Well, erm… yes, it would appear so,” The Doctor said, shifting uncomfortably.

“You two know Captain Jack Harkness?” Yaz asked in surprise. 

“Oh yeah, we’ve been on a few adventures,” Mickey agreed. “Flirts with everything moving, I can’t believe he managed to get the Doctor into bed after all these years.”

“Mickey,” Martha admonished, watching how uncomfortable his teasing was making their friend.

“Sorry,” Mickey said, contritely. He pushed a cup of tea and the plate of biscuits towards her in offering.

The doctor smiled and took a custard cream.

“So, what happens now?” Yaz asked, did this mean she had to go home? The Doctor could hardly go galivanting around the universe if she was pregnant.

“I have to find Jack,” The Doctor said. 

“You can’t go travelling all over the universe if you’re pregnant Doctor. You get in to too much trouble,” Martha said. “You need to be somewhere stable and safe.”

“I know, I know,” the Doctor said, unhappy at the thought of staying still for so long. “But I have to find Jack. He deserves to know.”

She had hurt Jack enough in the past. She didn’t want to do that anymore. He had been there for her when she needed him the most. She couldn’t hide his child from him. Especially not one that might actually live long enough not to break both of their hearts.

“He’s in Cardiff,” Mickey said.

“What?” The Doctor asked, surprised.

“We keep in touch,” he said, shrugging.

“He’s been back for a few months,” Martha said, “He’s staying with Gwen and her husband.”

“How long?” the Doctor asked. “Has he been here since New Year?”

“Why does that matter?” Mickey asked, confused.

“Because I have to find a version of Jack that knows me in this regeneration. I can’t just waltz up to a Jack that just left my tenth regeneration and tell him he got me pregnant,” she said.

“Oh, good point,” Mickey said.

Martha rolled her eyes and got to her feet, fishing her mobile out of her pocket. “What are you doing?” the doctor asked.

“Calling Jack,” she said as if it were obvious. 

“No, wait,” the Doctor said, suddenly panicking. She reached for the phone, but Martha danced out of the way.

“Martha Jones!” a loud American voice came out of the phone speaker.

“Hey Jack,” Martha said into the phone. “Weird question, but have you met her yet?”

“If you are referring to the Doctor, then yes I have,” he said. Martha rolled her eyes at the pride she could hear in his voice.

“Are you still earth bound?” Martha asked.

“I am, was thinking of sticking around for a bit, helping kick the governments ass into gear now that they shut down UNIT,” he said. “Why?”

“Because the Doctor is here, and she wants to talk to you,” Martha said.

“She does? Is the world ending again?” 

Martha laughed. “No, it’s not an emergency.”

“Oh, well then… am I in trouble?”

“You could say that,” Martha said, a smirk on her face as she raised her eyebrows at a pouting Doctor.

“Ouch,” Jack said. “Is she still going to be there if I drive?”

“You might want to teleport, you know what a flight risk she can be,” Martha suggested. She didn’t think the doctor would run away, not really, but the quicker he got her, the less chance she had to panic.

“I’ll be right there,” Jack said. 

The line went dead and there was a bight flash in the corner of the room. They blinked the lights out of their eyes and found Jack standing in the corner.

“Hey guys, did you miss me?” he asked.

“Hey Jack,” Mickey said, grinning at his old friend. Martha and Yaz both waved at the man who had suddenly appeared in the kitchen. The Doctor just stared at him, biting her lip.

The Captain looked at the Doctor and took in her pale face. “Doctor? You wanted to talk to me?” he asked softly, sensing her distress.

The Doctor nodded, and opened her mouth, but no words came out. She looked pleadingly at Martha.

“We’ll give you two some privacy,” she said, reaching out to squeeze the Doctors shoulder, before gesturing her husband and Yaz from the room. The Doctor watched them go a little helplessly.

“Doctor?” the man in question called her attention back to him. “What did you want to talk to me about?”

“Jack, I- I’m pregnant,” the Doctor said, shifting her feet nervously and struggling to meet his eye.

Jack’s jaw dropped open. Of all the things the Time Lord could have said, that was the furthest from his mind. “Pregnant?”

The doctor nodded, biting her lip.

“Mine?” he asked, he seemed to have been reduced to monosyllabic words.

“Yes,” she said.

“How long have you known?” Jack asked, trying to process the information.

The Doctor shrugged, pushing her hair back behind her ears. “For about twenty minutes,” she said.

Jack stared at her in surprise. “You came straight to tell me?”

“You deserve to know,” The Doctor said, as if it was obvious, as if there hadn’t been a small part of her that wanted to get into the Tardis and fly to the edge of the universe just to avoid having the conversation.

“Thank you, Doctor,” Jack said earnestly. The Doctor just shrugged, feeling awkward. “So, what happens now?”

“I think, I think I’m going to settle on Earth for a while. Just until they’re old enough to travel at least. I can’t have my enemies knowing about… Not after what happened to River.”

“We will protect them,” Jack said earnestly, the two of them had lost enough children. This one would be the most protected in the universe. “We won’t let them do what they did to River.”

“You knew her?” the Doctor asked, almost hopeful. Hopeful that she could share her pain for her wife with her friend.

“We’re friends. Got in quite a few scrapes together, I can tell you,” Jack said with a soft smile.

“She’s still alive, for you?” she asked, tears in her eye.

“She is,” Jack agreed, cupping her cheek and wiping away the tears. “I’m sorry that you lost her, she was good for you, I think.”

“She was a terrible influence,” the Doctor denied, a smile on her face. “But yes, she was good for me.”

Jack reached towards her and the Doctor allowed him to caress her stomach. He smiled at her, his eyes watering. “We’re going to have a child.”

“We are,” the Doctor said.

“Can I stay with you? Wherever you choose to settle,” Jack asked.

“Of course,” the Doctor said. “I want you to be part of their life Jack. You’re their father.”

Jack smiled and leaned forwards to kiss her, the Doctor accepted the kiss, leaning into him and letting her tired body rest against his solid form. He pressed a kiss to her temple and wrapped his arms around her more firmly.

“I’ve got you Doctor. I’ve got you,” Jack promised.

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or the characters.


End file.
